CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team picked up a big win in the opening game of its final series of the season against New Orleans on Friday evening, using a fantastic performance from its pitching staff to earn the victory by a final score of 4-2.
The win kept the Islanders (18-29, 10-18 SLC) firmly in the hunt for the final spot in the Southland Conference Baseball Championship, moving them back into a tie for eighth place with Nicholls, who was idle on Friday after having its game against Southeastern rained out. A&M-Corpus Christi will still need to win at least one more game over the weekend to earn a postseason berth, and potentially a second depending on how the Colonels do in their doubleheader on Saturday.
The story of Friday's game was the outstanding effort from the Islanders hurlers, with the unit holding a typically high-powered Privateers (25-22, 12-16 SLC) offense to just a pair of runs on eight hits in total. Taking the ball for the start was junior
Gage Burdick, who put together what was without a doubt his best outing of the season. The lefty held UNO scoreless over a season-high five innings, allowing just four baserunners on a pair of hits and walks while punching out five, which was also a new best for him. After escaping a two-out jam in the second inning, Burdick proceeded to reach another gear, facing just one batter over the minimum across his final three frames of work while retiring seven of the nine hitters that he faced.
"He went over and above our expectations," head coach
Scott Malone said about Burdick's start. "You ask any team in this league why things are going well, it's because guys are playing up and playing better than they thought. That's what Gage did tonight. If we want to continue having a good weekend and keep trying to find some wins against a good team, it's going to be because a couple of guys played up, and he started us that way tonight."
Burdick's departure gave way to junior
Preston Watkins out of the bullpen, who nearly managed to take the game to its conclusion all by himself. Like Burdick, Watkins also reached a new season-high in innings, tossing 3.2 frames while surrendering just two runs (one earned) and striking out three. The Deer Park native was able to work around some traffic in the form of six hits and two walks allowed, relying on his defense to help him hold on to a narrow lead throughout his entire outing.
"His key is strikes and tempo," Malone said on Watkins. "They scored on him in the sixth and seventh because of walks, so we were concerned heading to the eighth whether he could get us to the finish line, but he hung in there. It was a lot of guts, those last five outs. He was emptying the tank for us, and it was as much mentality as it was stuff."
While the duo of Burdick and Watkins kept the Privateers in check on offense, the Islanders managed to do just enough on that side of the ball to provide them the cushion that they needed. The big inning for A&M-Corpus Christi came in the second, when it put three runs on the board against New Orleans starter Grant Edwards to take control of things very early on. The frame began with a pair of base hits from seniors
Austin Russell and
Isaac Webb, and after a wild pitch advanced them both 90 feet, seniors
Cade Sanchez and
Logan Vaughan came up big with back-to-back doubles, with the former lacing a line drive right down the left field line to plate both runners and the latter finding the grass in right to bring home Sanchez and make it 3-0 in favor of the hosts. The bats would hit a bit of a cold spell after this, but they broke through with a much-needed insurance run in the seventh, cashing in with a sacrifice fly by Vaughan after Webb doubled and was moved up 90 feet on a Sanchez sac bunt.
The biggest chance for New Orleans to come back came in the final frame, when after two quick outs, a pair of base hits chased Watkins from the game with just one batter left to get. The task of finishing the job fell to sophomore
Matthew Molina, and after walking his first batter to load the bases, the righty got midseason All-American Bryce Calloway to fly out just shy of the wall in center field to lock up his third save of the year in dramatic fashion. This also helped Burdick nail down the win for the game, moving his record on the year up to a positive 4-3.
A&M-Corpus Christi was powered by the bottom of its lineup on Friday, with the five through nine hitters of Russell, Webb, Sanchez, junior
Karson Krowka and Vaughan picking up all seven of the team's hits and all four of its RBIs. The last four all got on the board with a double apiece, and Webb and Krowka went in the books as the only multi-hit performers of the day.
The Islanders will now try to continue their postseason push in the second game against New Orleans, returning for Senior Day on Saturday at 6 p.m.
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